Covid-19: A Sectoral Analysis (Part 1)

With the worst recession predicted since the early 18th century, soaring public and private sector debt, millions of job losses and a predicted 35% fall in GDP for Q2, the UK is facing an unprecedented task in getting all sectors of the economy back on track. The Office for Budget Responsibility recently published some very insightful, but worrying statistics on the impact Covid-19 may have on the UK economy (you can view the full report here), which can be seen from the chart below. But is it all necessarily doom and gloom? The markets may have rebounded strongly from their end of March lows, but I thought it would be interesting to assess how each of the 10 main economic sectors have performed and how Covid-19 has changed sector dynamics in the UK. This article will take a look at the strength of the sectors going into the crisis, how each sector has performed under the current circumstances and decipher some of the economic data that has been published on the sectoral impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Performance prior to Covid-19 Stock markets around the world…